Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Germany's arguably greatest classical poet has his roots in Frankfurt on the Main, where his reconstructed birthplace and the Goethe Museum commemorate his time and his work. During his studies he lived in Leipzig. He was so impressed by Auerbach's legendary cellar that he incorporated it later into his "Faust I" as the only really existing location. Goethe's most important time, however, was in Weimar. During the first six years he lived in the ducal summerhouse in the park near Ilm river and wrote "Egmont", "Torquato Tasso" and the prose version of "Iphigenie auf Tauris". 1782 he moved to Frauenplan. 1793 the poet laureate chose Jena for his home where he developed his friendship to Schiller. But not only Thuringia with the route of classic artists pays homage to the poet but also Düsseldorf where Goethe visited in 1774 the Jacobi family on their country residence. In the adjoining Jägerhof castle the Leipzig publisher Anton Kippenberg installed a museum dealing with Goethe's life and work with more than a thousand exhibits from his own collection